TROUT HABITS; LURES AND USE 



be the weather portent, that a hatch of flies is 

 the main thing to be alert for, such are the al- 

 ways delightful uncertainties of the sport which 

 occasionally admit of taking trout on the fly 

 during a snow flurry or a thunder-storm or in 

 the full glare and heat of a midsummer's day. 

 So the present writer holds with those who 

 agree that the best time to "go a-fishing" is when- 

 ever you can, during the open season which is 

 little enough time for most of us, to be sure! 

 and that unless the weather be altogether out- 

 rageous it is the earnestness and persistence 

 with which one fishes that most signifies. It is 

 an old angling axiom that success is most likely 

 to reward the fisherman who "keeps his line 

 wet." Dr. van Dyke says that "What is called 

 good luck consists chiefly in having your tackle 

 in order;" and that "the trained angler, who 

 uses the finest tackle, and drops the fly on the 

 water as accurately as Henry James places a 

 word in a story, is the man who takes the most 

 and the largest fish in the long run." 



Such, then, are some of the guiding cerebra- 

 tions of practical anglers who really have con- 

 sistently caught fish, and hence are entitled 

 to be registered in the "sure-enough" expert 

 class. But with all this lore, don't overlook 

 that hint about opening the first fish caught, 

 to see what kind of food he has just been re- 

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